JTech780

There are rumors that Minnesota and Pittsburgh are in trade discussions regarding Kessel. The rumor I was reading is Kessel and Johnson for Zucker and Rask.

I believe he needs to sign a 1 year ELC.

So who are the fallers in this draft? There is always a couple of players who fall down the board. I think Lavoie is one guy that could fall into our range. I could also see Arthur Kaliev falling into our range. Ryan Suzuki will probably be available at 26th, though I am not a huge fan of Suzuki and would probably rank him as a 2nd round prospect. I for some reason can see Peyton Krebs fall in the draft rankings, and not because anything to do with him, I just see some others rising up the rankings. I still don't think falls to us, but I could see him falling out of the top 15. I could also see Podkolzin fall, but not to us but out of the top 10, because of signing issues. One guy who is really intriguing is Jamieson Rees. He is a very good skater, he plays an aggressive game, and has sneaky good skill. He is small and slight, so you worry about his ability to hold up playing the style of game he does. He didn't put up the numbers you would like to see from a 1st round pick, but the skill is there.

I honestly don't know if Monahan can produce away from Gaudreau, that's the hard part with Monahan. He can't exactly carry the play on his own he needs someone to do it for him.

I don't think anyone is blaming Neal for the way the season ended. I think it's just a case of how do we get better next season, and clearing Neal's salary and roster spot opens a lot more possibilities. That's all. I personally think this team needs to upgrade Monahan and get a true number 2 center if we want to improve and take another step. Getting a true number 1 center would take a lot of the load off of Gaudreau, who currently has to carry Monahan offensively and defensively and that's just too much to ask from him. If you move Neal's contract it gives you a lot more room to figure out how to get a number 1 center onto the team.

I get what you are saying, but when Bennett is the only one who brings the intangibles that he does to the team, and he has shown time and time again that he is a big game performer, I just don't see how we can trade that away. I also think that Bennett has been given crappy linemates for most of his career and then we question why he isn't producing. Last year it was Jankowski and Neal, neither of whom played at a consistent NHL level. Before that it was Brouwer. Give him better players to play with and let's see what he can do. Heck even a line of Bennett-Ryan-Czarnik, would be the most skilled line he's played on since his rookie year when he played with Backlund.

Any interest in Colin Miller from Vegas? I keep seeing his name out there in the rumour mill. He is a good skating RHS D with a bomb of a shot. He can play on the 2nd pair or bottom pairing. He is signed at $3.88m for 3 more years. If we move Brodie or Hamonic and buy out Stone, Miller would fill in the gaps quite nicely.

What's the old saying... Hard work beats skill if skill isn't willing to work hard. I think you need to be skilled but you need your skill to work harder than anyone else. That's why guys like Toews and Crosby have been so successful. They are two of the most skilled players around, but they are also two of the hardest workers in the league. If we want to take that next step Monahan has to be willing to go to that level of work ethic.

I think we are more or less saying the same thing. I call it compete and you call sandpaper and grit. Though if you look at Jaden Schwartz and Logan Couture, who are arguably the 2 best players so far in these playoffs, their games are about being smart, skilled and working harder than anyone else on the ice. We need more of that, that's why I really like Nils Hoglander and if we could get an early 2nd I would like to see us pick Nathan Legare. Legare hits like a truck has a big shot and works hard. He does need to work on his skating, it's pretty average to slightly below average right now, so if he could improve that, he could be similar to Timo Meier.

He is fast. He could end being another Carl Hagelin, or Matt Nieto type player.

I disagree with this idea that you need big physical players to win in the playoffs, St. Louis isn't a big team, the have a few big players and that helps, but their best player in the playoffs is 5'9" Jaden Schwartz and Lady Byng Award winner Ryan O'Reilly. What you need in the playoffs is players with elite compete level, which what they have with Schwartz, O'Reilly and Schenn. That's an area that I think that Treliving needs to focus on in the draft. Rating compete as high as skill and skating, when assessing players.

Don't get me wrong I would still draft him, just not in the 1st round, maybe not in the 2nd either. If he was available in the 3rd I would look at him as an option.

This will be his 3rd time through the draft, he put up ok numbers for a player his age, but nothing spectacular. I think he will probably play in the NHL, but it will most likely be in a bottom 6 role. I just don't think he is a player I would risk taking in the 1st round, because I just don't see a ton of upside there.

https://www.tsn.ca/kakko-closes-gap-on-hughes-in-tsn-hockey-s-mock-draft-4-0-1.1309174 Button's new mock draft has us taking Brett Leason, I would rather trade the pick.